00:00If you close your eyes and picture yourself in the forest, what do you hear?
00:09Birds chirping?
00:10The sound of wind flowing through the leaves?
00:12While these are no doubt signals of a healthy, biodiverse woodland, experts say there are
00:16other auditory indicators below our feet that can tell us whether or not a forest is healthy.
00:21Researchers found that by monitoring the vibrations of the ground in wooded areas, they could
00:25actually tell the difference between, say, a recently deforested area and one that was
00:29healthy and flourishing with biodiversity.
00:31They say this is an important step in better understanding and monitoring the ecology of
00:35wooded areas, as all life on land begins and ends with the soil.
00:40Meaning using echo acoustics to check up on underground biodiversity can not only help
00:44monitor and provide metrics for restoration efforts in certain areas, long before plant
00:48and animal life in that area would provide any data, but it could also provide an early
00:52warning for areas that might be under threat, giving us a detection system far beyond the
00:57tertiary reactive ones we have currently.
00:59With the researchers writing for the conversation that it could also be a valuable tool, is
01:03climate change worsens as well, as trees and forests are carbon sinks, taking in CO2 from
01:08the atmosphere.
01:09Meanwhile, deforested areas are known to emit carbon, as dead plants and animals give off
01:14CO2.
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